Everybody knows I love compost. (The picture accompanying today's post is in fact my very own three-bin unit that I built, somewhat clunkily, all by myself.) Yes, friends of Lime, I'm a worm-herding dirt nerd, a certified Master Composter.

Now that spring has sprung, it's time for getting the finished compost out into our gardens and yards. So with that in mind, I offer my handy little recipe for compost tea.

I like using the tea for a number of reasons. First, of course, is that I don't have to haul heavy buckets of compost all around the regal Higgs estate, just a milk jug or sprayer full of the liquid brown miracle. (Yes, "liquid brown miracle." Compost nerds represent!) Second, compost tea can be sprayed on plant and tree leaves, which helps keep fungal diseases from gaining ground.

Dump a shovelful of finished compost in a five-gallon bucket, a barrel, or any sizable container, and add a couple gallons of water. Stir it up, then let it sit for a few days. Stir it up again, then pour the mixture through some sort of sieve - a tight-weave colander, some cheesecloth, an old sheet of burlap doubled over. (You want to keep the larger particles out of the final mix; they tend to clog up the sprayer nozzle.) Voila: tea time.

Keep in mind this is the lazy low-road method of compost-tea brewing. For deeper soil-based enlightenment, check out this comprehensive overview of tea science and methods by the queen bee of compost tea, Dr. Elaine Ingham, or dork out at her Soil Foodweb site.